Furnace-charging conveyer



April 29,1930. A. RLMQARTHUR L'Z FURNACE CHARG ING` GONVEYER Filed 001.19, 1928 2. sheetsshew 1 April 29,' i930.

v A. RHMCARTHUR FURNACE CHARGING CONVEYER Filed Oct, 19, 1928 2Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Apr. 29, 1930 UNITED' STATES f OFFICE ARTHUR n.MoAnTHUn, or GARY, 1NDIANA,' AssIeNoP. To' AMERIGAN--SEEET AND TIN PLATECOMPANY, A CORPORATION or NEW JERSEY y FURNAGE-CHARGING CONVEYER-vApplication led October 19, 1928. Serial lo. 313,545.

r ically chargejthe packs into the furnace.

Heretofore, pack heating 4furnaces of the class to which the chargingconveyer of this invention is associated have been lcharged 10 manually.The packs to be `charged into the furnace have been heretofore conveyedonto a platform or table at the charging end of the furnace from thedoubler and'shear by a mechanical conveyer, and an operator was 15stationed at the table to grasp the packs by means of a pair of tongsand feed them into the furnace. Tin mill practice has been'continuallyimproved within-the. past two or three years in an endeavor to reducethe manual labor necessary in the manufacture of sheets, and automaticmechanism has been supplied to handle the sheets and packs of sheets'wherever possible. Heretofore there has been a breakin the mechanicalhandling of the packs at the charging end of the furnace, since nosatisfactory conveyer or mechanical handling a paratus could be dessigned that would eed-.the packs into the furnace.

ical feeder 'or conveyer which is suiliciently compact, properly timedand composed of relatively strong parts4 so as to meet the demands ofthe mill practice.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a 'sectional plan view of the charging end of a furnacehaving my inven tion applied thereto.

- Figure 2 is a sectional elevation 'taken on the line II-II of Figure1.

I Referring more particularly to the drawings7 the numeral 2 designatesthe pack heating furnace as a Whole, Which is of the side "'45combustion chamber type, although any standard type of pack heatingfurnace may be vsubstituted therefor. The lfurnace 2 is provided with aseries of disk type conveyer rollers 3 along its entire length adaptedto 5o convey the packs to be .heated through the The present inventionprovides a mechan# furnace. The rollers 3 have their shafts extendedthrough the furnace and operatively connected by ears 4 with adrivelsliaft 'The drive-shaft 5 is coupled to one endof .a drive-shaft`6 of a speed reducing unit 7 which', in turn, -is coupled to a motor 8.The feed or charging end of the furnace is provided with a'feed-in tableA `.com-posed of a frame 9 on which are journaled .a pluralityof'disk-type conveyer rollers 10 and a solidroller 12. The shaft of therollerv12- Vand the shafts of the rollers 10.are all interconnected bychains 13 and sprockets 14 so that said rollers will operate in unison,and the shaft of the roller 12 is provided with a sprocket 15 whichis'connected by a chain 16 to a sprocket 17 on theshaft of the rearmostconveyer roller 3 of the furnace, so that the rollers 10 and 12 will beoperated simultaneously and in unison with the'rollers 3 in the furnace.

t i A belt or other standard conveyer unit 1 9 is mounted along the oneside of the furnace and extends substantially parallel therewith and isadapted to convey the packs from the doubler and shear, located at theioor level to the one side and adjacent the forward or dischar e end ofthe furnace, up to the level of the fgeed table at the charging end ofthe furnace.

. The hsadshaa 2o of ai@ Conveyer una 19 is provided' with a doublefaced clutch member- 21 adapted to engage with separately Vdriven clutchmembers 22 and 23.

The clutch member 22 is provided With a .sprocket 24 which is connectedby a chain 25 with a sprocket 26 on a drive-shaft 27 which extendsacross the back of the furnace and is connected by gears 28 and 29 tothe end of the shaft 6 of the speed reducer 7 opposite 'the shaft 5,.The clutch member 23 is provided With a gear 30 which is meshed with agear 31 on the shaft 32 f a speed reducing unit33 which is coupled toa'motor 34. The drive from the motor 34 is materially faster than thedrive from the shaft 27 and is used to hasten the delivery of packs tothe furnace when the delivery of the packs to the conveyer unit 19 hasbeen delayed.

A semi-circular conveying unit B is mounted at the rear or charging endof the furnace and has one end in alinement with the con veyer unit 19and its other end in alinement with the feed-in table A, so as to forman automatic or mechanical connecting link between the conveycr 19 andthe table A.

The semi-circular conveying unit B is composed of a frame 36 and aplurality of tapered disk type conveying rollers 37 which are journaledin said frame and have their smallest ends along the side of theconveyer nearest the furnace. Alternate ones of the rollers'37 are powerrol'lers and the other rollers are idlerollers. The power rollers87 havetheir shafts 38 extendednand journaled in a ringlike bearing bracket 39.Each lof the shafts 38 of the power rollers 37 is provided at its inneror furnaceend with a. pinion 40 which pinions are meshed with a ring`gear 41 keyed on a shaft 42 suspended from the dome portion of thering-like bracket 39. A bevel gear 43 is also keyed on the lower cnd ofthe shaft 42 and is meshed with a gear 44 on the shaft 27. A

In operation the motor 8 will first be started to drive the conveyerunit rollsB inthe furnace, the conveying unit B and `the v conveyer unit19.

Packs of sheets or plates will be fed manually upon the convever unit 19at suitably spaced intervals until the. furnace is completely filled.Aftei` the furnace is completely filled the motor 8will be deenergizedand the conveyers stopped until the packs are suii'iciently heated forrolling.

When the packs are heated the motor 8 will be. operated at intervals bya manually oper ated control (not shown) operated by the roller.Operation of the motor 8'Will advance the entire conveying mechanism onestep or sufficient to discharge one pack and charge or enter anotherpack into the furnace.

The discharged pack Will-be rolled, doubled and sheared in the usualmanner and will be delivered by the doubler and shear opera' tor ontothe conveyer unit 19 for'recharging into the furnace.

By the use of this apparatus, the services of an operator to charge thedoubled and sheared packs into the furnace is dispensed with and thefeedingof the packs is entirely automatic. n

In case the operator doubling and shearing the packs should be -delayedin placing the packs on the conveyer 19, so that the spacing of thepacks on the conyeyer 19 is irregular, he may remedy this defect byenergizing the motor 34 and engaging the clutch members 21 understoodthat I do not wish to be limited thereto, since various modificationsmay be made without departing from the scope thereof as defined in theappended claims.

I claim:

1. A semi-.circular connecting conveyer unit` servingl to connect twoparallel conveyer units, said semi-circular unit comprising a frame, aplurality of tapered conveying rolll crs'journaled transversely of saidframe with their smallest diameter ends at the inner side y l of saidframe. alternate ones of lsaid rollers being idler rollers and the otherof said rollers being driven rollers, said driven rollers having theinner ends of'their vshafts extended materially beyond said frame, bevelpinions ou said extended ends of said shafts, a .ring gear meshedwithall of said pinions, and means for rotating said ring gear. I

A 2. A semi-circular connecting Conveyer unit serving to connect tWoparallel conyeyer units, said ,semi-circular unit comprislng -a frame, aplurality of tapered disk-type conveying rollers journaled transverselyof said frame Awith their smallest diameter ends at the inner side ofsaid frame, alternate Ones of said rollers being idler rollers and theother of said rollers being driven rollers, said driven rollers havingthe inner ends of their shafts extended materially beyond said frame, abearing bracket7 saidextended ends of said roller-shafts being ournaledin said bracket, bevel pinions on said extended ends of said shafts, avertical shaft journaled in said bracket. a ring gear on said shaft andmeshed with said-bevel pinions, and means for rotating said verticalshaft.v

.In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand.

ARTHUR R. MOARTHUR.

and 23 so as to drive the conveyer 19 inde- I pendently of the otherunits until the proper spacing results, after which he will deenergizethe motor 34 and again engage the clutch parts 21 and 22.

While I have shown and described one spe.- ciiic embodiment of myinvention, it Will be y iso,

